Why retain incompetent officers, court asks Kolkata police

The Calcutta High Court Thursday pulled up the city police for its "incompetent officers". It was reacting to shoddy investigation into the alleged gangrape of a mentally challenged woman.

Hearing a plea of the victim's family seeking change in the probe agency, Justice Sanjib Banerjee castigated the police for not continuing investigation as documents certifying that the woman was mentally challenged were not produced.

"Why (are) such incompetent officers be(ing) retained in the police force," asked the court as it directed the deputy commissioner of the city police's eastern suburban division to submit a report explaining why the investigating officers should be retained.

"What has a certificate of illness to do with investigation," observed Justice Banerjee.

The 26-year-old woman was allegedly abducted from her Ultadanga house of the city August 2012 and subsequently gangraped.

"More than a year has passed and the police are yet to make a single arrest. They are not at all serious with the investigation and have been giving lame excuses. So we approached the court that the probe be handed over to some other investigating agency," said Arka P Chowdhury, the family's counsel.